Tuesday, October 17, 2006

It was reported today that Vice President Richard Nixon and his running mate, Henry Cabot Lodge, had failed to reach full agreement over Lodge's pledge to include a Negro in the Cabinet, if the Republicans win the White House. After the meeting Lodge said it "would be a wonderful thing to have a qualified Negro in the Cabinet." Nixon said he would appoint the "best men," without regard to race. Meanwhile, top Republican campaign officials reported that a private poll found a surge for their party as the November election neared.

It was also reported today that Nixon narrowly escaped serious injury yesterday in Springfield, Ill., when Jack Sherwood, a Secret Service agent, pulled him out of the way of a large set of heavy floodlights and their short-circuiting power cables that threatened to crush and electrocute the vice president. it was the second time that Sherwood helped save Nixon's life. The first occurred in 1958 in Venezuela when the Vice President's motorcade was attacked by an angry mob trying to pull Nixon from his car.

An anti-Catholic letter being circulated nationwide says that a Kennedy victory in November would lead to war and "The murdered Protestants' property would become Catholic property," according to a story in today's New York Times under the banner headline, "Anti-Catholic Groups Closely Cooperate in Mail Campaign to Defeat Kennedy." The articles reports that "The most effective pieces [of anti-Kennedy literature] are coming from the 'church and staters,' a major force represented by the National Association of Evangelicals, by Protestants and Other Americans United for Separation of Church and State and by many in the Southern Baptist Convention.

"By their own testimony, all these groups are cooperating closely. They direct their arguments at uncommitted or vacillating Protestants, inside the churches and out, who have vague worries about the 'Catholic question.'"

Thomas F. Zimmerman, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, has sent out a letter that states, "If a Roman Catholic is elected president -- what then? The Church of Rome will have a new great advantage, and the United States will no longer be recognized as a Protestant nation in the eyes of the world. Don't you agree that it is time for the Protestants of America to stand up and be counted?"

The United States can look forward to living underground, unless the arms race is halted, according to The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. The growing size of nuclear weapons will require the U.S. to build factories inside caves, along with apartment buildings and stores. Eventually, all human life will be underground, according to the center's report, "Community of Fear."